Placebo Response in the Treatment of Women's Sexual Dysfunctions: A Review and Commentary

We reviewed the literature to determine the nature and magnitude of therapeutic response associated with placebo treatment in clinical trials for women's sexual dysfunction. We abstracted data from 16 articles to record the effect size associated with placebo treatment. In most of these studies, placebo recipients reported statistically significant improvements on one or more major endpoints relative to baseline. Although placebo responses varied across study populations and methodologies, within-group effect sizes were predominantly in the moderate range. Our findings suggest that post-menopausal women and women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder may be more likely to respond to placebo treatment.